A Rare ‘Strong Buy’ Rating For Alcatel-Lucent (ALU)

Alcatel-Lucent, S.A. (NYSE: ALU) doesn’t have many friends when it comes to research analysts on Wall Street after a series of ongoing disappointments. That may be changing if today is any indication. The team over at Raymond James has decided to initiate coverage on the European (formerly American Lucent) telecom and communications equipment provider with a Strong Buy rating this morning. After closing at $1.98 on Tuesday, shares are trading up almost 5% at $2.08 in the pre-market trading.

Alcatel-Lucent has a consensus analyst target of $2.95, which actually implies close to 50% upside in the name. Shares have traded in a range of $1.39 to $6.63 over the last year and the market cap at yesterday’s closing bell was $4.49 billion according to Yahoo! Finance data.

Alcatel is only expected to post a breakeven quarter on $4.59 billion in sales for its first quarter according to Thomson Reuters consensus earnings estimates.